Election is, for lack of a better explanation, a very messed up movie. Taking place in a high school environment it explores the lies and deceit that can go hand in hand with a student government that’s being manipulated by a young woman that will do anything to win and has a very short and disturbing temper. This has to be one of the most surprising Reese Witherspoon performances of her career, especially since there aren’t a lot of films in which she’s seen as so vindictive. It doesn’t exactly paint teachers in the best light either, but then again it shows that everyone’s human and makes serious mistakes in judgment at times, perhaps at the worst time in their life to be honest. The mere thought that a high school teacher could be swayed so easily by student is kind of hard to fathom, but then again it’s not the strangest thing that’s ever happened.
Here are a few things about the film you might not have known.
10. Apples are used very prominently in the movie.
They seem to point to something that’s about to happen in the film, as there’s an apple tree nearby when Jim gets stung by a bee, there’s an apple bough hanging down over the scene when Jim realizes his wife has found out he cheated on her, and so on.
9. The extras had to move around a lot.
There weren’t enough extras to fill the scene so the director had to have them keep shifting around so that it looked like there were a lot more people than there actually were. This is a trick that’s been used for many films.
8. This was Chris Klein’s first acting gig.
It’s not the last time he would use the sensitive guy routine either since he seems to be stuck in that mode for a few movies, such as the American Pie series. That’s kind of been his act for a while now.
7. Some of the classrooms had actual classes in session.
Can you even imagine how hard it was for the kids to not get up and try to see what was going on? A lot of high school kids would want to see just exactly what was happening in their hallways and would love the chance to get noticed by a director. But it seems as though there might have been a joint effort between the director and the teachers to keep the kids studying. Plus, it was SAT season so the motivation to do well was probably another reason kids didn’t flock to the hallway.
6. Some of the cupcakes seem to spell out a rather interesting word.
There’s no idea if it was intentional or not but the cupcakes that Tracey made that said Pick Flick were a little long on the bottom L, thereby making Flick into something a little less appropriate but definitely subliminal. It could have been a mistake, but with this type of character it doesn’t seem likely.
5. The original ending was slightly different.
The original ending had Jim working at a car dealership and Tracey went to visit him on her way to college. You can just imagine what his reaction might have been if he got to go face to face with her in that version.
4. Tammy would have won the election.
The disregarded votes that were taken out for Paul and Tracey would have left Tammy as the victor if she hadn’t been expelled. It’s odd how in high school anarchy can get such a positive reaction while order and reason don’t tend to be something that a lot of kids care about.
3. During the basement scene the film crew left all of the tenant’s belongings, only making room for the equipment.
It must have been the kind basement setting that the director could see a character like Jim really being comfortable in. But it still seems to be awfully trusting of the tenant to just let people use their space like that. Of course if they were paid well it wouldn’t have been too hard.
2. Matthew Broderick actually urinated on a tree.
There is such a thing as taking the act too far unless someone tells you to do it. Matthew has been a pretty good actor for a long time but this kind of took some people off guard when they found out that he was really relieving himself on the tree.
1. Some of the apples in the film were tied onto the branches.
There’s nothing like the untimely falling of fruit to ruin a shot. But then some directors might actually take that and run with it. For this movie though it seems like everything had to be just right in order to work.
This kind of movie makes you really think about high school elections and how much the students put into them.
Follow Us
